Extended excerpt:

[Speech announcing candidacy in the Democratic Party presidential primary election. Video of original speech; transcript via Repeat Right: errors appear in the current (March 2018) C-SPAN “uncorrected Closed Caption transcript.”]

“For much too long we have sacrificed personal excellence and moral values for the mere accumulation of material things. For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community. For too long as a nation, we have been lulled by the anthem of self-interest. And for a decade, led by Ronald Reagan, self-aggrandizement has been the full-throated cry of this society: “I've got mine, so why don't you go get yours?” or “What's in it for me?”

Source links: “Biden announcement” (9 June 1987) video & transcript online via C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/video/?3310-1/biden-announcement

Extended excerpt:

[Biden, in memoir prologue, citing first speech announcing run for U.S. Senator. Biden won the 1972 election, and ultimately represented Delaware as a U.S. Senator until he resigned to serve as U.S. Vice President in January 2009. Ellipsis in text below original to Biden's 2007 text.]

“Our failure in recent years has not been the failure of the people to meet the challenges placed before them, but rather the failure of both our great political parties to place those challenges honestly and courageously before the people, and to trust the willingness of the people to do the things that really need to be done…We all know – or at least we are told continually – that we are a divided people. And we know there's a degree of truth in it. We have too often allowed our differences to prevail among us. We have too often allowed ambitious men to play off those differences for political gain. We have too often retreated behind our differences when no one really tried to lead us beyond them. But all our differences hardly measure up to the values we all hold in common.” (pp. xvi-xvii)

Source: Library – Promises to Keep (2007, Random House first edition) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 978-1-4000-6536-3

Misquote notes:

The C-SPAN transcript accompanying the cited Biden video is “compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning” – and it contains a few errors. There are also partial ‘transcripts' online which do not accurately quote Biden's speech. One common misquote example [bold emphasis, Repeat Right]:

Accurate Biden quote: “We must rekindle the fire of idealism in this country, for ladies and gentlemen – nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference.”

Misquote: “We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society, for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference.”

Extended excerpt: [Speech announcing candidacy in Democratic presidential primary. Quote from video of original speech; transcript via Repeat Right. Please note that errors appear in the current (March 2018) ‘uncorrected' C-SPAN transcript]

“And finally, we must rekindle the fire of idealism in this country, for ladies and gentlemen – nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference. We must reclaim the tradition of community in our society. For only by recognizing that we share a common obligation to one another and to our country can we ever hope to maximize our national and personal potential. We must reassert the oneness of America.”

Source links: “Biden announcement” (9 June 1987) video & transcript online via C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/video/?3310-1/biden-announcement

Extended excerpt: [Remarks as a U.S. Senator, on the Senate floor.]

“When we say that the American political system is the best money can buy,” Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, observed bitterly on the Senate floor this week, “it is not a compliment, it is an epitaph.”

Asked whether the outspoken 30-year-old freshman Senator had meant to say “epithet” rather than “epitaph,” a Biden aide said: “Oh no, not at all. He meant the thing you write as the last words – you know, on a tombstone.” (p. 13, column 5)

Source link: “Election Finance Reform: Idea Whose Time Came” (4 August 1973) online via The New York Times [subscription service]: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/08/04/106108391.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=13

Misquote notes:

If you attribute this quote to Joseph R. Biden, then you're safe. Citation sticklers, however, should note that Joseph ‘Joe' R. Biden, Jr. credited his father, Joseph R. Biden, Sr. as the original source of the words:

Vice President Joe Biden, Jr. (1 February 2017) Facebook post:

“My dad used to have an expression. He said: “It's a lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they're about to do and thinks it still matters.”

Extended excerpt: [Joe Biden, Jr., citing his father, Joseph Biden, Sr., in a Facebook social media post]

“My dad used to have an expression. He said: “It's a lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they're about to do and thinks it still matters.”

Source links: Vice President Joe Biden, Facebook post (1 February 2017) online via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/posts/10154079164661104